Fire fee here to stay

A $150 “fire prevention” fee for most non-Mammoth residents in Mono County may be here to stay, after promised political support for the removing the fee evaporated during the election season.

The State Responsibility Fee (SRA) was initiated by Governor Jerry Brown’s administration and became effective earlier this year, when most of the county’s property-owning residents began receiving the fee in the mail. Although rural counties have railed against the fee, and although the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association has filed a lawsuit, calling it a tax that the voters never approved, Mono County Supervisor Dwayne “Hap” Hazard said Tuesday that he believes the fee is not going anywhere.

“With a Democratic supermajority in the state House and Senate, and because our Representative, Ted Gaines, threw us under the bus when we did have a chance, I think it’s over,” he said.

The fee has caused local residents no end of trouble, he said, with mistakes in applying the fee, mistakes in discounts and a complicated process for appealing the fee all adding to the confusion.

For more information from the group fighting the fee, go to http://hjta.org[3]